…..there must be an error in this report, but I am posting it just to see if we can get the truth shaken loose.

When I first started writing this blog in 2007 there were ten federal resettlement contractors that monopolized all refugee placement in the US, but the number dropped to nine and has remained there ever since. The nine are listed below.***

Earlier we learned that Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) was as much as 99.5% funded by you (taxpayers!) for their charitable good works for refugees. So it would be no surprise to learn that they would be one of the federal resettlement contractors dropped by the US State Department as the Trump administration slows the flow of paying clients to the US.

By the way, when the present Refugee Admissions Program was set up, it was supposed to be a public-private partnership, but over the years the private funds dwindled as they became more dependent on public money (aka taxpayer dollars).

The headline for the story which is mostly about Episcopal Church business is this:

The Rev. Charles Robertson predicts EMM will be cut off from refugee contracts. “We are prepared for the worst.”

Members of Executive Council also received briefings from church officers and staff members during the week, including a bleak assessment of the future of the church’s refugee resettlement work from the Rev. Charles Robertson, the presiding bishop’s canon for ministry beyond the Episcopal Church.

Episcopal Migration Ministries, one of nine agencies with federal contracts to resettle refugees in the United States, expects to learn in the coming weeks if its contract will be renewed, at a time when the Trump administration has dramatically reduced the number of refugees being resettled. The odds are not in Episcopal Migration Ministries’ favor, Robertson told Executive Council’s Ministry Beyond the Episcopal Church Committee.

Could seven be given the boot?

“If we were going to bet on it, we’d bet we’re not going to make the cut,” Robertson said. He predicted only two of the nine would receive contracts. Though unlikely, he said it is still possible Episcopal Migration Ministries will be one of the two.

I’m thinking that the reporter got that wrong and meant to say that ‘seven of the nine would receive contracts.’ If it is true that seven would be cut, that would be earth-shaking news.

Later that afternoon, Robertson gave a sobering outlook on Episcopal Migration Ministries’ future to the committee on Ministry Beyond the Episcopal Church.

“We are prepared for the worst,” Robertson said – the worst being the end of Episcopal Migration Ministries’ contract to continue the resettlement work it has done for the federal government since the 1980s.

EMM’s interactive partners map. Go here to see if one of their offices is near you: https://episcopalmigrationministries.org/our-partners/

The U.S. Department of State announced Sept. 17 that it would lower the ceiling to just 30,000 refugees for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, down from a ceiling of 85,000 just two years ago. And that 30,000 is just the upper limit, Robertson stressed. The actual number of refugees to be welcomed into the United States likely will be much lower.

Episcopal Migration Ministries once oversaw 31 resettlement affiliates in 26 dioceses, but that number has dwindled to 14 affiliates in 12 dioceses. With even fewer refugees to resettle, the federal government isn’t expected to keep all nine of its contracted agencies, Robertson said, and Episcopal Migration Ministries, though well equipped to do that work, is one of the smaller of the nine.

Even in the worst-case scenario, however, Episcopal Migration Ministries will remain an important part of the Episcopal Church’s outreach efforts. If the resettlement work ends, the agency may find other ways to support refugees and, possibly, other immigrants, Robertson said. He estimated it would take about a year to fully realize that new vision for the agency.

I wonder what the loss of millions of federal dollars will do to the church. I once had a reader, knowledgeable about the budget of the Episcopal Church, tell me that some of the refugee dollars went to other programs, however we were never able to confirm that.

By the way, there likely won’t be any tears shed by the remaining contractors since the nine have been competitors as they ‘bid for bodies!’

***Below are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.

I realize I haven’t posted this list for twelve whole days!

The present US Refugee Admissions Program will never be reformed if the system of paying the contractors by the head stays in place and the contractors are permitted to act as Leftwing political agitation groups, community organizers and lobbyists paid on our dime!

And, to add insult to injury they pretend it is all about ‘humanitarianism.’

The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees into your towns and cities and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)! And, get them registered to vote eventually!

Like this:

The refugee resettlement contractor has apparently, according to news reports, been shuttered for a couple of years, but now its former Board Chairman, a former deputy sheriff, has been indicted for taking money from the publicly-funded charity.

DENVER, CO — A fired former division head of the Denver Sheriff’s Office and a former president of the state Fraternal Order of Police was indicted by a grand jury in Denver earlier this month for allegedly pocking $50,000 from an Aurora refugee charity.

Franklin Gale, 55, of Denver was indicted by a Denver grand jury in connection with the alleged diversion for his own use of multiple checks paid to Ecumenical Refugee And Immigration Services, a non-active refugee resettlement agency that closed under a cloud in 2015 after another embezzlement scandal.

Gale is charged with money laundering, theft, attempting to influence a public servant forgery and vehicle theft. The indictment was handed down Oct. 3 and Gale turned himself in to the Longmont Police, a statement from the Denver District Attorney’s Office said.

[….]

Gale was serving as a non-compensated board member of ERIS in 2015 when the charity was closed down following a 2014 criminal investigation by the Aurora Police Department that resulted in embezzlement and theft charges against two staffers, Genevieve Marie Cruz and Adam Cole Shryock.

See that Charity Navigator has given ERIS its High Concern Advisory rating.

According to the indictment, Gale was a friend of Cruz, who was brought onto the board initially as a consultant. He ended up the president of the board as the organization closed down.

ERIS had received public funds to assist with refugee resettlement through the CARES branch of the Colorado Department of Law Human Services. Those funds were revoked after Cruz and her colleague were charged.

In May of 2015, Gale was elected president of the board of directors and the organization closed its doors.

When Cruz and Shyrock pleaded guilty in 2016, they were ordered by the court to pay $50,000 in restitution to the agency, the indictment said.

According to the grand jury indictment, about a dozen checks were sent to the defunct agency in care of Frank Gale at his Denver home address.

The indictment alleges that between November 2015 and April 2017, Gale wrote $48,668 in checks to himself from the ERIS account and deposited them into an account he established for his minor son. Gale would then make bank account cash withdrawals, ATM withdrawals, and/or transfer the funds from his son’s account to other accounts under his control, thus laundering the money, the indictment alleges. The actions ultimately added up to the theft of $50,000, the DA’s office said in a statement.

Gale is also accused of forging the name and signature of the former board director on a motor vehicle title for a truck owned by ERIS and then getting a new motor vehicle title in his own name.

And, I learned from that site that it was a subcontractor working for two of the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors:

Ecumenical Refugee and Immigration Services (ERIS) helps to resettle refugees and asylees who are legally in Colorado (by Church World Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries), by providing them assistance with educational needs, family and social services, medical attention, employment, and cultural orientation.

There needs to be much more scrutiny than there is at the present time of non-profits benefiting from state and federal tax dollars.

In June of last year, we learned that Episcopal Migration Ministries,which is not a separate non-profit organization but is embedded in the Episcopal Church itself, is 99.5% funded by the federal government—that would be you, the taxpayer.

The church receives millions of dollars annually from the US Treasury!

So, as you read the following news, keep in mind that your money pays for political activities of the Episcopal church.

The church (one of nine federal resettlement contractors***) held a regular gathering of the faithful in Austin, Texas and Trump immigration and refugee policy was the ‘premiero’ topic of discussion.

What a surprise!

If you are an Episcopalian, you might consider finding another church (just saying!).

In case you happened to miss it, here is Daniel Greenfield on George Washington’s Virginia church and the vote. (hat tip: Ed).

Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia where both Washington and Robert E. Lee worshiped. More details: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/27/george-washingtons-church-tear-down-memorial-honor/

So what does this have to do with refugees?

It is a news hook to tell you about Episcopal Migration Ministries!

We tell you daily that there are nine federal resettlement contractors*** placing third world refugees in to unsuspecting American towns and cities. Six of those, depending almost completely on taxpayer dollars, are supposed to be ‘religious’ church groups largely controlled now by the political LEFT. (The Socialists and Communists understand that in order to bring down America they need to control the churches and break up the family.)

The one federal resettlement contractor surviving almost exclusively on federal tax dollars is Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) that admitted in its own publication recently that it is 99.5% funded by the federal government.

And, it gets worse! The other eight federal contractors at least have set up separate legal entities as non-profit groups to receive their federal payola, not so EMM. The federal money destined to EMM goes directly to the Episcopal Church (USA)making it harder than normal to follow the (your!) money! See my post here.

I had always wondered why I couldn’t find an IRS Form 990 for them! Churches don’t have to tell the feds about their money (apparently even if it is the feds’ money!).

Check out this recent annual report from EMM. Have you ever seen an annual report that does not mention their income and spending at all? https://episcopalmigrationministries.org/wp-content/uploads/AR2017.1.pdf

Let me be clear, this Virginia church and the Episcopal Church (USA) can be political all they want to be, but not with taxpayer dollars!

The executive order’s impact on EMM’s bottom line is especially drastic because EMM is a unique ministry of the Episcopal Church, both structurally and fiscally. While not separately incorporated, as is Episcopal Relief & Development, EMM receives very little money from the church-wide budget, instead receiving 99.5 percent of its funding from the federal government.

(By the way, if you are still an Episcopalian, you do need to either speak up or find another faith group! Just saying!).

Are federal dollars propping up the Episcopal Church (USA)?

This is not the only place I’ve heard this over the years, but here is one writer who believes the money the church gets from the feds for refugees, helps prop-up the failing church. Read the article which is focused on the US State Department’s travel loan repayment plan where the non-profit, in this case EMM, acts as a loan collection agency and pockets some of the money it wrings out of the refugees.

The Episcopal Church (USA) has two primary sources of income: according to its latest audited financial statements for the calendar year 2013, it received a little over $27 million from its member dioceses, and it received half as much again, or $13.8 million, from the federal government.

America has its own refugees—‘Harvey’ refugees—so tell the President to suspend the entire UN/US Refugee Admissions Program for FY18.

The U.S. State Department of State won’t move forward with resettling refugees this year through a Charleston-based affiliate of Episcopal Migration Ministries, according to organizers who had been working to bring more refugees to West Virginia.

Members of the West Virginia Interfaith Refugee Ministry had been working to bring more refugees — those fleeing violence or persecution in their native countries — to West Virginia, by establishing a Charleston-based affiliate of a national resettlement agency. Lynn Clarke, a leader with the group, said last month that they planned to open an affiliate of Episcopal Migration Ministries in Charleston on Aug. 1, and that they anticipated 85 refugees would arrive between October 2017 and September 2018.

The Rev. Canon E. Mark Stevenson, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries, and Antigona Mehani, who was hired to direct the office, both later said too much was unknown to anticipate how many refugees could arrive and when.

On Wednesday, Rabbi Victor Urecki, leader of Charleston’s B’nai Jacob Synagogue and a member of the West Virginia Interfaith Refugee Ministry, provided a statement from Episcopal Migration Ministries and the West Virginia Interfaith Refugee Ministry. [Urecki has been a leading advocate involved with the local ‘Interfaith’ effort to bring Syrian refugees to Charleston.—ed]

The statement from Episcopal Migration Ministries said that on Monday, Episcopal Migration Ministries “learned that the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration will not move forward with resettling refugees in several sites in the coming year,” including Charleston.

So, other sites won’t get refugees in the coming year—where are they?

By the way, two things made this Charleston site different in my view. First, those pushing the resettlement were pushing for Syrians from the outset, not any refugees from anywhere which is the normal case, but Syrians specifically.

And, secondly, that cash-strapped EMM had closed other established offices in other states, yet was hoping to open this one. Why?

I have a substantial archive on Charleston, click here, because citizens there were actively engaged against the idea of bringing more poverty to West Virginia.

LOL! Did any of you call Rep. Mooney’s office and ask him to get you the FY18 R & P Abstract for EMM in Charleston? Did he get it for you?

It is not too late. You will find the Abstract very informative (if they give you all the pages) because it will describe all the amenities Charleston has to offer its new third world refugees—jobs, housing, medical care, etc.

Like this:

But, is it the obligation of the US taxpayer to pay the Episcopal Church millions annually for THEIR Christian charity? Of course that is one of the major moral questions that has driven this blog for ten years!

With the news that the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed a limited version of the president’s travel ban to go into effect, we should recall our moral obligation to assist refugees seeking a chance to rebuild their lives and create a better future for their families. As the world searches for solutions to the largest refugee crisis in global history — more than 22 million people worldwide of whom fewer than 1 percent will ever be resettled in another country — we in Maine must do our part.

It is easy to be charitable with someone else’s money!

I searched the Bangor Daily News piece for any mention of the fact (published in their own publication) that the church is receiving 99.5% of its funds for refugee resettlement from the taxpayer.

Episcopal Migration Ministries(the church’s refugee resettlement wing) is not even a separate legal entity, so our money goes directly to the church!

Therefore we, or Mainers, don’t need any lectures about moral duties! Christian charity should be privately given, not extorted from every taxpaying American!

The first and foremost Congressional reform needed with our process of resettling refugees in the US is to bar the phony charitable non-profit middlemen*** from receiving federal dollars for their ‘charitable’ work.

I have a huge archive on Maine and its problems with refugees and asylum seekers, click here.

Like this:

This is old news from back in April and I don’t know if they have changed their minds about closing offices after it was announced by the Dept. of Stateon May 26th that the number of refugees being admitted to the US is going to tick up to 1,500 a week.

Since the refugee contractors*** are paid by the head to place refugees in your towns and cities they may feel there is some hope for their finances to pick up with an increase in paying client (aka refugees) arrivals.

(As of June 11th, 47,434 refugees have been admitted to the US in FY17. This is 9,328 refugees since the supposed moratorium began and 17,312 since Trump was inaugurated.)

However, office closure news isn’t the primary reason I’m posting this news. I’m posting it because a reader has solved a mystery I’ve been wondering about for years—why is there no Form 990 (the IRS form required of non-profit groups) for Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)?

Before I get to the answer. Here is what the Episcopal News Service reported on April 4th (they are looking ahead to FY18 and even lower numbers of refugee clients):

As a result of changing U.S. policy that lowers the number of refugees to be resettled in this country annually by more than half, Episcopal Migration Ministries will be reducing the size of its affiliate network by six sites in the next fiscal year. Currently, the Episcopal Migration Ministries network consists of 31 affiliate locations.

Episcopal Migration Ministries is a ministry of the Episcopal Church, and is one of nine national agencies responsible for resettling refugees in the United States in partnership with the government.

“We are disappointed that we need to take these steps, but the current situation leaves us no choice,” commented the Rev. Canon E. Mark Stevenson, director of Episcopal Migration Ministries. “We have reduced our national core staff by 22% due to funding cuts and we are now looking at a similar cut in our network of affiliate partners through which refugees are resettled. While difficult, the decision making process regarding these reductions has been carried out carefully and strategically, with the welfare of refugees at the forefront of our minds.”

As Episcopal Migration Ministries prepares for fiscal year 2018, six offices will not be included in the resettlement plan submitted to the government. The affiliates, and the Episcopal dioceses in which they are located, are: Refugee One, Chicago, IL (Diocese of Chicago); Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida, Jacksonville, FL (Diocese of Florida); Lutheran Social Services of ND, Fargo, ND (Diocese of North Dakota); Lutheran Social Services of ND, Grand Forks, ND (Diocese of North Dakota); Ascentria Care Alliance, Concord, NH (Diocese of New Hampshire); and Ascentria Care Alliance, Westfield, MA (Diocese of Western Massachusetts).

Readers this does not mean that the entire refugee program in, for instance, Fargo, ND is closing. Many of these contractors double up in places where the flow coming in is pretty lucrative. See the page from the State Department’s affiliates directory. You will see for Fargo, for instance, that EMM shares an office with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Presumably LIRS will stay in business.

If you are wondering what the DFMS stands for in the lefthand corner of two entries, it is for EMM’s other name Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. You see how tricky this gets when trying to figure out what these secretive agencies are doing while using different names and housing their money in difficult-to-find places! (BTW, I was told by a DOS employee nearly ten years ago that there are no financial audits done of this particular group of federal contractors.)

They are not passing the plate on Sundays for their refugee program!

Take, for example, my quandary about trying to find EMM’s Form 990. Here is what one reader spotted in a lengthier story from Episcopal News Service in April:

The executive order’s impact on EMM’s bottom line is especially drastic because EMM is a unique ministry of the Episcopal Church, both structurally and fiscally. While not separately incorporated, as is Episcopal Relief & Development, EMM receives very little money from the church-wide budget, instead receiving 99.5 percent of its funding from the federal government. Its main office is housed at the Episcopal Church Center in New York.

EMM takes the prize! 99.5% of its funding is from you. And, you have no way of knowing where your money is going!

And, come to think of it, where is the ACLU on the issue of separation of church and state? Hmmmm?

The next highest contractors run at the 97%-98% federal funding level (US Conf. of Catholic Bishops, USCRI and LIRS).